Top stories from the Texas Tribune data visuals team in 2024

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As in years past, The Texas Tribune’s data visuals team worked on some of the most important stories this year. Our data journalists helped cover a consequential election, reported on the impacts of unaffordable housing, looked at the state’s attempt to build a wall along the southern border and much more. Here are some of our best stories this year.

Elections and voting trends

Every other year, we play a critical role in covering elections in Texas. Before the March primaries, designer/ developer Yuriko Schumacher explained how only a fraction of voters decide who wins elections and runs the state, using visuals that metaphorically show voters as small fish in a big pond.

She also helped with our voter guides for the primary and general elections.

Senior developer Carla Astudillo put together the most comprehensive election results pages in the state during both the primary and general elections. She also tracked how much Ted Cruz and Colin Allred raised for their general election showdown.

After the primaries, former fellow Andrew Park analyzed turnout. Similarly, after early voting in the general election, Yuriko visualized turnout trends and did the same after Election Day.

Carla and Yuriko created charts for a post-general election story that compared how Donald Trump and Cruz performed. Dan Keemahill, data reporter for the Texas Tribune/ ProPublica Investigative Unit, visualized sharp increases in Republican support over time in border counties.

Border wall

Yuriko examined how much of a proposed border wall the state has built along the Texas/Mexico border. The team that worked on this story found the state has spent billions of dollars over the course of three years building a barrier that is still far short of its goal.

Affordable housing

We also took big swings covering housing problems in Texas. In the spring, Andrew helped answer if Republican efforts to decrease property taxes have been successful. Carla, for months, gathered and analyzed zoning data from 11 cities across the state to help report on Texas’ growing housing crisis.

The most visually ambitious was a story showing how dominant single-family housing is across Texas cities.

Public education

Education was another topic we covered in detail this year. Dan, along with other reporters on the investigative unit, reported on school districts who were violating a campaign finance disclosure law. Dan and the team also showed the influence of pro-voucher billionaires as lawmakers prepare to potentially vote for pro-voucher legislation next year, while Carla showed who the new pro-voucher House members will be.

In the summer, Yuriko charted the decline in STAAR scores in math and science. And Elijah examined state data and found a sharp increase in uncertified teachers post pandemic.

Meanwhile, education data developer Rob Reid has been working on building education data resources that will help push our Texas schools coverage in groundbreaking ways. His first focus is analyzing public school budget data and understanding how local schools budget and spend the money they have available to them.

Extreme weather

Over the spring and summer, as Texas faced extreme weather, the team helped visualize the impacts. Yuriko and Andrew showed the scope of the flooding in East Texas in May. This inspired a more comprehensive story on weather extremes in Texas. After Hurricane Beryl hit Houston, former fellow Elijah Nicholson-Messmer tracked CenterPoint power outages each day.

In the summer, with help from experts, Yuriko comprehensively analyzed several massive datasets for a story showing the state has likely been undercounting heat-related deaths. Meanwhile, Carla charted how tourism growth in the Big Bend region has created water issues for local residents.